Last month rekindled a lot of childhood memories for me with the 50th anniversary of the first of the Apollo moon landings on July 20th 1969.

As a seven year old, the whole Apollo programme fascinated me and inspired me to pursue a career in engineering. Fortunately I was able to do some early work in the space sector at the beginning of my career. Dabbling with exotic rocket fuels and exploring what they could do was great fun and we had some exciting moments too. However I never did realise the ambition of a bespectacled seven year old to be an Astronaut.

During July the main TV channels showed some excellent documentaries about the topic. It was great to see one of my childhood idols James Burke back on the TV.

So often the focus has been on the brave astronauts who flew the missions but without the support of “tough and competent” engineers working under extreme stress the missions would never have happened.

However a couple of programmes really stood out for me. The BBC World Service Podcast series “13 minutes to the moon” was truly extraordinary. Giving previously unheard insights into the story of Apollo and those that made it happen. The development of the Lunar Module (LM) by aircraft manufacturer Grumman stands out- a tough assignment after designing the F14 Tomcat of “Top Gun” fame! The young engineer sent to add thermal protection to the LM when it was in situ on the top of a fully fuelled Saturn V on the launch pad is a real eye opener.

Also the innovation of MIT building the mission computer for the LM is an incredible story. It was the first computer that was truly portable at a time when people boasted how big the buildings were that hosted their computer!

The Netflix documentary Mission Control- The unsung heroes of Apollo puts faces to the engineers who made the whole thing happen. It cover not only the moon landing of Apollo 11 but also the recovery from the tragedy of Apollo 1 and also the audacity of the Apollo 8’s journey around the moon, the well known mission to save the crew of Apollo 13 and the flick of the switch that saved Apollo 12 from aborting the mission shortly after lift off when a lightning strike disabled all of the screens at Mission control and caused chaos in the command module.

A good holiday read to get behind the story of the whole programme is Gene Kranz’s memoir “Failure is not an option” and yes- he’s the Ed Harris character in Apollo 13.

It was great to see on the Netflix documentary that two of the modern day Flight Directors at Mission Control Houston fulfilling the Gene Kranz role looking after the International Space Station are female.

I suppose for many of us there was a disappointment that the world of manned exploration ended after Apollo. Unmanned missions around the solar system have been incredibly successful and the rise of private sector projects such as SpaceX have created a new more economic source of heavy lift capability.

We may soon see visits to the Moon and Mars which will hopefully inspire a new generation of engineers.

For those who are interested in how the Soviets managed to get overtaken and lose the race to the moon they were so far ahead, an alternative story can be found in the biography of the Soviet “Chief Designer” Sergei Korolev. Someone who was so important his name was kept secret until after his sadly premature death.

A very constructive meeting between BEIS officials, Trade bodies and manufacturing companies to discuss two schemes to reduce UK’s Carbon Footprint.

It was an interesting meeting which discussed how to improve the efficiency of high energy use businesses but also begin to tackle the “long tail” of low energy use small businesses. Thes businesses may only have energy costs of 2-3% of total costs but the sheer volume of them has a massive effect on UL energy usage.

Designing the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund

The £315 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund will support businesses with high energy use to:

cut their bills and emissions through increased energy efficiency

transition to a low carbon future through the use of lower carbon energy and processes

This informal consultation seeks views and supporting evidence to help us design the fund. Its focus is particularly on the benefits and barriers to industrial decarbonisation as government has a good understanding of these issues for energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency scheme for small and medium sized businesses

This call for evidence seeks views on various proposals for a new Business Energy Efficiency Scheme focused on SMEs.

We are keen to hear from anyone with an interest in how a new scheme for SMEs could be designed, including:

energy companies

network operators

SMEs

financial institutions

Energy Service Companies (ESCOs)

academics

SMEs account for 99% of UK business and have a very low awareness of the benefits of energy efficiency. The additional documents here provide summaries of findings from 2 projects which explored how to engage SMEs in energy efficiency:

Digital Discovery: funded by BEIS and delivered through external contractors (completed November 2017) considers the demand for a website targeting SMEs with information about energy efficiency

Digital Alpha: a 12-week project (completed July 2018) to build 3 prototypes with the aim of motivating SMEs to make a significant contribution to the 20% ambition

Rousing speeches by Jonathan Reynolds MP Richard Harrington MP at the recent MakeUK APMG Parliamentary reception. An event to celebrate all that’s best about British Manufacturing and catch up with valued colleagues.

We have launched an inquiry which will explore how we can create Local Industrial Strategies that support manufacturing and respond to local needs, whilst addressing national economic priorities. We would like as many submissions as possible so please feel free to contribute. hashtag#manufacturinghashtag#thefuturehashtag#industrialhashtag#local

Recently I attended an SBS Business Breakfast concerning the power of the platform economy.

Prof Annabelle Gawer from the business school gave a thought provoking presentation explaining how platforms such as Amazon, ebay and the Apple App store work and the way that they have transformed business. Seven of the top ten valued businesses in the world are platforms and two are based in China.

There was also a healthy debate and a view on what the future holds for these business models.

I recently had the pleasure of being invited to attend both the inaugural Conference of the India Business Group – held at the prestigious Nash room at IoD Headquarters 116 Pall Mall and the India Business awards held at the House of Lords.

It was a fascinating morning hearing about the fabulous connections and common themes that exist between India and the UK- not least my beloved cricket!

As usual the dinner was a celebration of all things Indian with business awards, music, celebrity and fine company!

This week I had the pleasure of being a guest of the US Embassy at an event held at the RAF Museum at Hendon celebrating the “rebirth” of the C-47 Dakota “That’s all Brother” The C-47 that led the airborne landings of US forces at the Normandy landings on D-Day.

The aircraft was found at a refurbishment yard in Wisconsin and has been painstakingly restored and is now flying again. It will fly to Normandy on 5th June this year and with airborne troops who will parachute into France.

A programme about the aircraft will be on the History Channel on 7th June.

Whilst at the museum I took the chance to have a good look at the exhibits with photos below.

An afternoon supporting the Policy Connect All Party Parliamentary Groups Manufacturing and Sustainable Resource (APMG and APSRG) for a discussion to explore how public procurement can support Remanufacturing and create a more circular economy. An excellent session chaired by Ruth Cadbury MP with contributions from a variety of sectors helping us to obtain a wide range of inputs and perspectives.

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